Nadine

“A man is born upon the banks of the Indus,
where there is none to tell of Christ
And no one to read or write about him;
And all his inclination and his actions,
As far as human reason sees, are good;
He is without sin in word or deed.
He dies unbaptised and without faith:
Where is the justice in condemning him?
Is it his fault, if he does not believe?”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Dante Alighieri

“Belittling others is no pastime for those convinced of their own standing. There is terror behind haughtiness. It takes a punishing impression of our own inferiority to leave others feeling that they aren’t good enough for us.”
― Alain de Botton, Status Anxiety

“What kind of persons writes fiction about the past?"
- "The kind of person for whom one lifetime is not enough."

- Hilary Mantel”
― Hilary Mantel

“Science should matter to us not only because it helps us to control parts of the world, but also because is shows us things that we will -never- master. [...] Nightly - perhaps after the main news
bulletin and before the celebrity quiz - we might observe a moment of silence in order to contemplate the 200 to 400 billion stars in our galaxies and the 3 septillion stars in the universe. [...] majestically unaware of everything we are and consolingly unaffected by all that tears us apart.”
― Alain de Botton, Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion